Joseph Vincent Paterno ’50, the man the late Stanley
Woodward described as a quarterback “who can’t run,
can’t pass – just thinks and wins,” is still
thinking and winning at Penn State as he establishes himself as one
of the great coaches of intercollegiate football history, along
with such men as Pop Warner, Knute Rockne, and Bud Wilkinson. But
Stanley Woodward missed the mark in his assessment of
Paterno’s playing ability. Joe could run – his
69-yard punt return for a TD beat Holy Cross in Brown’s
“8 for 9 in ‘49” season; his 64-yard pass to
Chuck Nelson helped beat Harvard the same year; and Joe Paterno was
one of the finest defensive backs Brown has ever produced. The
5-10, 170-pounder from Brooklyn also had a good football brain in
his college days, prompting Coach Rip Engle to say that when the
cocky Paterno played quarterback Brown had a coach on the field.
Paterno was accepted at B.U. Law School but decided to go with Rip
Engle to Penn State “just for a couple of years.” When
Rip retired in 1966, Joe became head coach. Over the past 12 season
Penn State has posted a 92-20-1 record, giving Paterno the best
winning percentage of any active coach. There have been a steady
succession of Bowl games, a No. 2 ranking in 1969, and Coach of the
Year honors for Paterno in 1968. But Joe Paterno’s success
goes deeper than statistics. He has said things that have shocked
his profession, such as “football should be fun” and
“athletic dorms should be abolished.” He stood up to a
former President of the U.S. in defending his players against what
he considered an insult. He frequently listens to Beethoven or
Puccini when preparing game talks. His philosophy of football and
of life is best summed up in the Churchillian idea that success is
never final, failure never fatal. Four years ago Joe Paterno became
a folk hero to many when he turned down a million dollar offer to
coach the New England Patriots, responding perhaps to the bumper
stickers and postcards that flooded Pennsylvania saying
“Don’t Go Pro, Joe.” Asked to give the
Commencement Address at Penn State in 1973, Paterno told the
students: “Money alone will not make you happy. Success
without honor is an unseasoned dish. It will satisfy your hunger,
but it won’t taste good.” If a test of a University is
its product, then Brown University should be very proud of Joe
Paterno.